Did a White House pal go rogue?

Jeffrey Immelt, the chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric and a top Obama ally, says that he is “way in support of the Boeing team” in the ongoing battle between the National Labor Relations Board and Boeing over the aircraft manufacturer’s push to build plants in South Carolina, a right-to-work state.

Earlier today, Immelt, who heads the president’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, told Greenville Online that he thinks Boeing should be able to move its operations to the Palmetto State. “You’ve got a world-class, high-tech, job-creating force that’s coming into South Carolina,” he said. “I just can’t think of one reason why we’d want to slow that down, not one.”

Upon hearing the news, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), a vocal NLRB critic, highlighted Immelt’s remarks in a statement. “Mr. Immelt runs one of the biggest companies in the world which employs tens of thousands of Americans,” he said. “Mr. Immelt clearly understands how detrimental the NLRB’s actions are to job creation in the United States . . . When it comes to job creation, the NLRB lawsuit is a nightmare.”